Faye Kellerman's latest thriller features Cynthia Decker, daughter of Peter Decker, familiar to readers of the author's previous novels featuring the L.A. detective and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus. In Kellerman's earlier books, we've met Cynthia briefly as a difficult adolescent upset by her parents' divorce and later as an Ivy League college student with an interest in following her overly protective father into the family business: solving crimes. Now Cynthia's a young L.A. cop who's the subject of what at first seems like innocent-enough teasing from her colleagues. They think she's snooty and standoffish and riding on her father's reputation. Actually, she's all of those things, which makes for a somewhat less than sympathetic heroine: Beaudry said, "Every time we start shooting the bull, talking about the day, you say things like, 'Yeah, my father once had a case like that.'"

"I'm trying to relate."

"It pisses people off. It makes them think that their experiences are nothin' special. Everyone wants to feel special. You already feel special because you've got all this college. You gotta remember that the average Joe on the force is a high school graduate, maybe a couple of years at a junior college like me. If you're real smart, okay, you do a four-year state, then enter the academy with the idea of doing the gold."

"Like my dad--"

"Stop mentioning your dad. He isn't a legend, Decker, he's a pencil pusher." As the teasing escalates, Cindy's stalked, threatened, and finally frightened, although it pains her to admit it. There's a killer on the loose, and even if she's not the best cop on the force, she knows enough to turn to her father for help. But first, she has a brief affair with one of the men under his command. It seems a little too obvious a ploy for Daddy's attention and hardly adds to her character--we already know she's immature and a bit of a bitch. But at least this maneuver brings Peter back on the scene, allowing Kellerman to hit her stride as she gets back to a character who holds the reader's interest because he's more than two-dimensional. Sadly, Cindy's not quite ready for prime time; perhaps she'll grow up in her next outing. Or better yet, Kellerman will bring us more adventures by Peter and Rina. --Jane Adams


From Publishers Weekly
LAPD detective Peter Decker, promoted to lieutenant after his heroics in Jupiter's Bones (1999), is overloaded with troubles in this outstanding, suspense-packed mystery, the 12th in Kellerman's acclaimed series. As usual, a challenging case distracts Decker from his family, but this time there is one difference. Cindy, his smart, outspoken daughter from his first marriage, is now a cop, to the overprotective Decker's dismay. Meanwhile, Decker is faced with two different series of car-jackings. In one string, the thief targets young women carrying babies. The cops tie the other jackings to Armand Crayton, a sleazy real estate developer who had supposedly died in a car crash a year earlier, after being kidnapped. Several women Crayton knew have been threatened, their cars stolen. When Drecker discovers that an anonymous stalker has been harassing Cindy, he hits the roof. Is it one of her colleagues, or does trouble stem from her casual acquaintance with Crayton? Kellerman is a fine writer, beautifully evoking the feel of Los Angeles and creating scenes that would please Chandler and MacDonald. She deals realistically with the problems women face in a male police world. Her development of the tense father-daughter relationship is wise and honest: Decker is torn between his inability to accept Cindy as an independent adult and his pride in her accomplishments; meanwhile, Cindy respects and loves her father but is distraught by his interference in her personal and professional life. The complex Cindy is a most welcome addition to Kellerman's cast. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The excellent performance by veteran narrator Jay O. Sanders enlivens this otherwise uninspired addition to the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. Brash rookie Cynthia Decker, Peter's 25-year-old daughter from his first marriage, and her beat cop co-workers take center stage in this LAPD police procedural. Cynthia's Ivy League degree and ties to the high-ranking Lieutenant Decker alienate her from her comrades in the Hollywood Division. Peter also struggles to view his daughter as a colleague especially when she becomes the target of a stalker. Much to her father's dismay, a ridiculously headstrong Cynthia tries to solve her own stalking case, exploring possible connections between it, a murder, and the unsolved car-jacking cases her father is investigating. Cynthia's effort to assert herself in her new job overwhelms this abridgment, leaving little else in the way of characterization and action to engage listeners. Public libraries may want to wait for an unabridged version to satisfy Kellerman's many fans. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
The twelfth in Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series focuses on Decker's cop daughter, Cindy. Resented, yet desired, by the male cops, Cindy must help solve a series of carjackings and a murder while keeping one step ahead of someone who is out to get her. Sanders handles tense scenes well, especially a Hispanic domestic quarrel. He also makes minor characters memorable. Cindy is presented as bright, sincere, and headstrong, the last quality getting her into tight situations. The shortened version makes perfect sense. All that said, one wonders, since this is Cindy's story, how a female reader would have handled the same material. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Popular author Kellerman returns with another installment in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series, this time focusing on Decker's daughter, police officer Cindy Decker. With an Ivy League education, a high-ranking policeman father, and an outspoken, aggressive attitude, Cindy is having trouble fitting in with her old-fashioned, blue-collar LAPD colleagues. Now she has successfully handled a volatile domestic dispute but, in the process, made a few more enemies on the force. Then she realizes she's being stalked: Is she being hazed by her colleagues or is it related to the series of violent carjackings that her father is investigating? The page-turner of a plot is fueled by Kellerman's seemingly boundless knowledge of the psychological mind-set of both cops and criminals. With its many compelling characters and asides on everything from religion to family dynamics, this is another winner in a solid series. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Baltimore Sun
"No one working in the crime genre is better."


Chattanooga Free Press
"A master storyteller."


Los Angeles Times
"One of the finest."


Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A Master Of Mystery."


USA Today
"Kellerman Skillfully Weaves The Various Characters Through A Complex Plot...Stalker Is A Terrific Addition To The Decker Genealogy."


Book Description

L.A. Homicide Detective Peter Decker never wanted the perils of his job to touch his family. But now his two worlds have collided.

A first year rookie with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, Cynthia Decker became a cop against her father, Peter Decker's, wishes. But police work is in her blood, and she's determined to make it on her own -- even now, when her razor sharp instincts for danger are telling her that something is very wrong...

The signs are impossible to ignore: things being moved around in her apartment, the destruction of personal effects. But it's a harrowing trip down a dark canyon road that confirms Cindy's worst fears. Someone fiendishly relentless, and with decidedly evil intentions, is stalking her. And with Peter Decker isolated from her troubles by his own investigation into a disturbing series of car-jackings, it's up to Cindy alone to find out who in her personal and/or professional life wants her frightened or harmed...or dead.


About the Author
Faye Kellerman introduced L.A. cop Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, to the mystery world in 1983. Since then she has published 13 Decker/Lazarus novels, the most recent being the New York Times bestseller The Forgotten. She is also the author of Moon Music, a contemporary thriller set in Las Vegas, and The Quality of Mercy, a historical novel of Elizabethan England. Kellerman lives in California with her husband, noted author Jonathan Kellerman, and their four children, three dogs, and fish too numerous to count.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
Like Father, Like Daughter
From Faye Kellerman, half of one of the literary world's most successful writing couples, comes a new Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus novel: Stalker. This time out, Kellerman focuses on Peter Decker's daughter, Cindy, who in the last book of the series, Justice, declared her intent to become a cop like her father, much to Peter's dismay. Now, in Stalker, Cindy has made it through her training and is working as a rookie. And she's having some problems that make Peter's worst fears for her come true.

Having a somewhat famous lieutenant father on the force is enough to put a chip on some cops' shoulders. For Cindy Decker, it seems to alienate her to some cops and makes others tiptoe around her. This delicate détente isn't helped any by Cindy's tendency to say what she thinks and harbor a mulish stubbornness. The fact that she is a woman in what used to be an exclusive brotherhood only adds names to the list of those who resent her. And the final nail in her coffin is her college education and degree in psychology, a fact some of her street-smart but book-dumb coworkers view as a threat. So as a rookie, Cindy's life on the job is complicated enough. But when she shows up her superior officer, Clark Tropper, in a domestic hostage situation, things get even stickier.

Cindy's struggles are compounded by her father's overprotectiveness. Although he tries to keep his distance and let Cindy have some independence, his paternal instincts often get in the way. And it turns out he has a lot to be concerned about when he learns that Cindy's apartment has been broken into several times and someone may be following her. What's more, a recent rash of carjackings that Peter is investigating may be related to the jacking/kidnapping and fiery crash death of land developer Armand Crayton the year before. And it turns out that Cindy not only knew the victim, but someone took a few potshots at the twosome as they were leaving their gym together not long before Armand was killed.

Although Cindy's current troubles don't appear to have anything in common with Armand's death or the carjackings, neither Cindy nor Peter can shake a gut feeling that they are all somehow connected. While a few officers claim some of the incidents Cindy has experienced are a form of hazing imposed on her by her fellow cops, the very nature of the incidents escalates in both severity and frequency to the point that Cindy starts to fear for her life. What's worse, the very people who are responsible for keeping her alive on the streets -- her fellow police officers -- are at the top of her list of suspects. By the time Cindy uncovers the truth, a truth more shocking than anyone suspects, it will be the same stubborn willfulness that caused some of her troubles that will end up saving her life.

One of Kellerman's greatest strengths is the depth and breadth of her characters, whose eccentricities and details make them seem so real, you half expect to encounter them on the street. Kellerman also has a flair for detail that, in this case, brings the subculture of the police world to vivid life. While the character of Peter Decker has been a creative and literary gold mine for Kellerman, the stubborn and spunky character of Decker's daughter, Cindy, is worth the launch of a whole new series all her own.

--Beth Amos

Beth Amos is the author of several novels, including Second Sight, Eyes of Night, and Cold White Fury.

ANNOTATION

Someone fiendishly relentless, and with decidedly evil intentions, is stalking her. And with Peter Decker isolated from her troubles by his own investigation into a disturbing series of car-jackings, it's up to Cindy alone to find out who in her personal and/or professional life wants her frightened or harmed...or dead.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Cynthia Decker may be a rookie, but as the daughter of Lieutenant Peter Decker, one of LA's finest, she's no stranger to the cop's life. Her father isn't happy she's joined the force, but agrees to a shaky truce. Unfortunately, all that is about to change. Someone is stalking Cindy, and now more than ever, the last person she wants to turn to is her intensely protective father.

Someone is after Cindy—trailing her down dark mountain roads, breaking into her apartment. And there is no shortage of suspects. Could her stalker be from the past, related to an unsolved case? Or is it someone new, perhaps someone from her own department?

Fiercely independent, Cindy launches a private investigation, keeping her father—who has problems of his own—in the dark. But as her list of candidates grows and the stalker's actions become increasingly brazen and threatening, she must turn to the most unlikely source for assistance. She is desperate to conceal the facts from her father, but when she discovers their cases are on a collision course, she has no choice but to allow him into her panic-stricken world, where a shadowed menace haunts her every moment and a split decision can make the difference between life...and death.

About the Author:

Faye Kellerman has written 11 Pete Decker/Rina Lazarus novels, the latest of which, Jupiter's Bones, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Stalker is her first book featuring Peter Decker's daughter, Cynthia. Ms. Kellerman lives in California with her husband, noted author Jonathan Kellerman, and their four children.

SYNOPSIS

L.A. Homicide Detective Peter Decker never wanted the perils of his job to touch his family. But now his two worlds have collided.

A first year rookie with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, Cynthia Decker became a cop against her father, Peter Decker's, wishes. But police work is in her blood, and she's determined to make it on her own -- even now, when her razor sharp instincts for danger are telling her that something is very wrong...

The signs are impossible to ignore: things being moved around in her apartment, the destruction of personal effects. But it's a harrowing trip down a dark canyon road that confirms Cindy's worst fears. Someone fiendishly relentless, and with decidedly evil intentions, is stalking her. And with Peter Decker isolated from her troubles by his own investigation into a disturbing series of car-jackings, it's up to Cindy alone to find out who in her personal and/or professional life wants her frightened or harmed...or dead.

FROM THE CRITICS

Susan Haas - USA Today

Stalker creeps toward resoluton with some unlikely twists. But Kellerman skillfully weaves the various characters through a complex plot. In all, Stalker is a terrific addition to the Decker genealogy.

People Magazine

It's a credit to Kellerman's storytelling abilities that long after she reveals "who dine it" readers will be frantically flipping pages to find out just how and why.

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

The latest "well-written" mystery thriller from best-selling author Kellerman "failed to capture" the interest of some of our booksellers. Though it picked up "in the final pages of the book," "the characters, though clear-cut and well-rounded, were predictable," keeping it from a higher rating.

Los Angeles Times

One of the finest.

USA Today